The Sensorimotor Dynamics of Joint Attention

Abstract

Social interactions are composed of coordinated, multimodal behaviors with each individual taking turns and sharing attention. By the second year of life, infants are able to engage in coordinated interactions with their caregivers. Although research has focused on the social behaviors that enable parent-infant dyads to engage in joint attention, little work has been done to understand the sensorimotor mechanisms underlying coordination. Using wireless head-mounted eye trackers and motion sensing, we recorded 31 dyads as they played freely in a home-like laboratory. We identified moments of visual joint attention, when parent and infant were looking at the same object, and then measured the dyad’s head and hand movements during and around joint attention. We found evidence that both parents and infants still their bodies during joint attention. We also compared instances of joint attention that were led by the parent or by the infant and identified different sensorimotor pathways that support the two types of joint attention. These results provide the foundation for continued exploration of the critical role of sensorimotor processes on coordinated social behavior and its development.

The specificity of forming strategies of the dyad adult-child with hearing impairment in the process of learning: eye tracking of double eye tracking technologies (duet)

“…Using the superimposed trajectories of eye movement, we were able to trace the moments of the appearance of synchrony of visual attention in the adult-child dyad and analyze the critical moments of their mismatch. By superimposing the eye movement trajectories of an adult and a child, we were able to analyze the similarities/differences in the spatiotemporal path of movement that are observed between the eyes of an adult and a child (Hoch et al, 2021;Schroer & Yu, 2021).…”

“…The experience of previous studies shows that when using DUET analysis, in order for an episode to be encoded as a manifestation of joint visual attention, it is considered in the spatial (fixation in areas of interest) and temporal coordination of eye movements in the context of multimodal interaction (for example, gestures and verbal utterances) (Shvarts, 2018;Kassner et al, 2014;Monroy et al, 2021;Schroer & Yu, 2021).…”

“…Studies using double eye-tracking can be qualitatively expanded with the help of double tracking of the gaze movement of a child and an adult, followed by the reconstruction of synchronous gaze shift (Dindar et al, 2017), which makes it possible to determine the similarity in the spatiotemporal path of movement observed between the gaze of an adult and that of a child (Hoch et al, 2021;Schroer & Yu, 2021).…”

The real‐time effects of parent speech on infants' multimodal attention and dyadic coordination

“…Participants varied in the amount of time they spent moving around the play space, as well as in the amount of time they spent engaged with the 10 toys. Participants also wore motion sensors while they played (see Schroer & Yu, 2021).…”

Специфика Глазодвигательной Активности У Детей С Нарушением Слуха В Процессе Самостоятельного И Совместного Со Взрослым Выполнения Обучающего Задания

“…At the same time, the other person's head and eyes positions are an insufficient source of information about the object of his attention. People generate multimodal behavior and their attention and interest in an object, potentially signaling to others through a variety of modalities, including interaction with the object itself, gestures, speech, and talking about objects (Bakeman & Adamson, 1984;Yu & Smith, 2017b;Yu & Smith, 2017a;Schroer & Yu, 2021). This mutual awareness is crucial in the learning process (for example, to focus on the learning material).…”